Gideon Welles

Gideon Welles (1 July 1802-11 February 1878) was the US Secretary of the Navy from 7 March 1861 to 4 March 1869, succeeding Isaac Toucey and preceding Adolph E. Borie.

Biography
Gideon Welles was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut in 1802, and he became a journalist, founding the Hartford Times in 1826. From 1827 to 1835, he served in the State House, and he served as Postmaster of Hartford from 1836 to 1841 and Chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing for the Navy from 1846 to 1849. He was a Jacksonian Democrat who worked very closely with Martin Van Buren and John Milton Niles, and he became a member of the Free Soil Party in 1848 due to his opposition to slavery. In 1854, due to his anti-slavery views, he joined the Republican Party, and his support for Abraham Lincoln in 1860 made him the logical candidate from New England for Lincoln's cabinet. In March 1861, he became Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy, serving during the American Civil War. He implemented the Anaconda Plan to blockade the South, and Lincoln nicknamed Wells his "Neptune". However, his anti-English stances caused friction with William H. Seward, and his conservatism led to clashes with Salmon P. Chase and Edwin M. Stanton. After Lincoln's assassination in 1865, he was maintained as President Andrew Johnson's Navy Secretary, and he supported him during his impeachment. He returned to writing after leaving the cabinet, and he died in 1878.